Tanking Role
Tanking is the role of attracting monsters to you while your healer and damage dealers perform their role. It is best executed by the Defense archetype classes: Warrior, Knight, Templar, and Dragon Knight The Best Tank There is no best tank for every situation. Each class excell in its own area of expertise, thus it depends on the fight and group setup to decide which tank is better for the current situation. * Warriors are immune to fear, can stun, charge, have more defensive abilities and have access to more passive Defense through knowledge. *Knights are immune to hypnosis, can silence (does not work on bosses), move faster, increase healing taken by allies, higher evasion, remove debuffs on self and can usually generate more malice than Warriors. As a rule of the thumb you can say Knights are better at general monsters (also known as trash) and Warriors are better at bosses, but keep in mind every situation is different. There are non-boss monsters in Malice dungeon that can put you to sleep but are easily handled by a Knight's immunity to hypnosis, while a Warrior's stun can make a boss alot easier to deal with. In any case, if you plan on seriously tanking, the best approach is to level both classes to have the best class certificates available. Heroic Traits The best Heroic Traits for a tank are, in no particular order: *''Commando'' (STR +10%, P-ATK+10%), *''Guardian'' (+10% Defense, +5% Resistances), *''Maverick'' (10% AGI, 10% ATK SPD) and *''Leadership'' (12% HP, 12% Mana). If you plan on changing classes often, Maverick provides the best bonuses for multiclassing as AGI gives benefits to casters and physical damage dealers. Attributes Your favorite attributes in equipment are, in no particular order: STR, AGI, WIS, HP, P-Healing (do not confuse with G-Healing), EVA and Resistances. Note that STR increases your block, AGI your EVA and Parry, WIS/P-Healing the healing you take. As a rule of the thumb you'll always want to use a one-handed weapon and a shield. Blocking attacks completely negate the damage taken by that blow, and some abilities require one-handed weapons anyway. Basics: Malice As a tank you'll want every single monster in a fight focusing you, unless you have a second tank. You can see what a monster is attacking (or trying to) by looking at the health bar on the right side of its own. A monster attacks whoever has more malice. Attacking and healing both generate malice, so your main focus is to keep enemies away from the rest of your group, specially 'your healer. If he or she is attacked it can interrupt his or her spells, leading to player deaths. And that's bad. Basics: Abilities Let's go through the general Defense Archetype abilities first: *'Declaration of Anger: Increases Malice caused by attacks and reduces P-DMG received. :: This amazing buff gives a tank everything he or she needs: extra malice and reduced damage taken. Use it before engaging and keep it up during fights. :: Note: that it increases malice of every single blow. The faster you hit, the more malice you'll generate per second. It makes multiple attacking spells, such as Maelstrom and Bloody Attack, do great amounts of malice very quickly. *'Provoke:' Increases P-ATK and incites the target to attack you. Enemy takes extra damage. :: This is our only long range attack, and it's similar to a taunt mechanic: if the target isn't attacking you, it'll be almost guaranteed to do it after it's cast. However it still deals :: This spell CAN MISS. Be ready to hit the monster if it does or it'll go straight to your damage dealers. :: Note: that it also deals a good amount of damage on top of increasing the damage taken. *'Combat Cyclone:' Strikes all nearby enemies. :: This, combined with Declaration of Anger, is the best way to keep groups of monsters attacking you. Deals less damage than Deep Impact when only hitting one target. *'Deep Impact' and Destroyer: Deals damage with a chance of knockdown if affected by Destroyer. Destroyer puts a Damage over Time effect and reduces EVA, stacking up to 3 times. :: These two aren't nearly as important as the other two abilities and are used mostly as fillers (see below). For specific Warrior or Knight abilities, as well as in-depth descriptions, visit the Warrior page or Knight page. Basics: Ability Priority Before we go into priorities, keep in mind that using defensive abilities such as Elegant, Metal Buster or Health Potions when you're taking too much damage takes precedence over any damaging ability. Moving out of a boss' spells, kiting and using Provoke if something's attacking someone else is also included. With that out of the way, these are the two most common situations when you're tanking: multi target tanking (several enemies) and single target tanking. If you're dealing with multiple attackers you might want to keep switching targets to spread your malice evenly. *'Warrior's like buffs, are negative effects that enemies cast that will linger for a few seconds or untill they're removed. There are debuffs that cannot be removed. They are shown in your buff/debuff interface on the left side of your minimap, and they're always below your buffs.' These effects are key to beat certain bosses. If you see an orange icon of a heart pierced by an arrow, or a yellow icon of a fist, you must stop attacking untill that debuff is gone. The first will deal damage to you everytime you attack (and probably kill you), while the second will heal the boss by a huge amount everytime you strike. General tips *Make a habit of always repairing your equipment at the Weapon or Armor Merchant everytime you're in town. If your items are broken you'll take too much damage to survive a dungeon. *If you get a new shield, don't discart your old one. At higher levels its normal for your shield's durability to run low quickly, and having a second shield can save you a Repair Hammer. *Just because you have a healer does not mean you shouldn't be using Health Potions. If your healer is in a tight spot, use them. Category:Tanks